Johanna Konta hits form in Miami

March 27, 2017

Johanna Konta returned to something approaching her best form with a highly impressive win over Pauline Parmentier to reach the last 16 of the Miami Open.

The tenth seed had not been playing well since the Australian Open, but her rhythm returned as she defeated the Frenchwoman 6-4, 6-0. The match had gone with serve until 4-3 in the first set, at which point Konta broke and never looked back.

From there on, the Briton was unstoppable in the second as she raced to victory in 63 minutes. Her reward will be a fourth round clash with Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena, who earned an unexpected win over Madison Keys.

Konta remarked: "I'm happy to have come through that. Although the scoreline doesn't show it in the second set, I still had to work hard within every single point. I really tried hard not to take my foot off the gas and stay focused on what I wanted to achieve."

It was a far cry from Konta's laboured second round win against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich and suggests she could at least emulate last year's run to the quarter finals.

With world number one Andy Murray missing the tournament with an elbow injury, British singles hopes all now rest with Konta. British fans booking corporate hospitality for the Championships, Wimbledon will hope she can make this her best year yet.

The men's draw is also without defending champion Novak Djokovic, who has a similar injury to Murray. While that means the Scot will extend his lead at the top of the rankings, it also provides opportunities for Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to boost their positions after their fine starts to 2017.

Nadal enjoyed a landmark win with victory in his 1,000th tour match as he defeated German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

It all appeared to be going wrong for the Australian Open finalist after he lost the first set 6-0, but he rallied to take the second 6-2 and the third 6-3.